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Call for Publications Theme: Hybridization in the History of Ideas Publication: Journal of Interdisciplinary History of Ideas Date: Thematic Issue (2022) Deadline: 15.3.2022 __________________________________________________ In its root, the term ‘hybrid’ has to do with hybris: it refers to violations, insolence, violent passions, lust and wantonness, excess. The corresponding Latinization also has a clearly negative connotation (Pliny NH 8, lxxix). It slowly becomes a neutral term, finally a technical one, yet confined to the sciences of the living or to zoological and botanic ‘philosophy’. It is only in recent times—largely as a counterpoise to 19 th- and 20th-century ideologies of racial purity—that it earns a positive, interesting, even captivating connotation, that allows ideas and metaphors of hybridization (Stross 1999) to be widely employed. Hybridization thus becomes a pivotal element in a terminological constellation celebrating productive combinations and mixtures (Burke 2009) that challenge ordinary subdivisions and polarisations. Looking at the past from this viewpoint, one can satisfyingly describe as ‘hybrids’, e.g., the grotesque doodles of composite creatures that inhabit manuscript margins (Camille 1992), and likewise the colonial cultures of Baroque and post-Baroque Latin America (Salgado 1999), as well as any hint of cultural hybridization from prehistory to the post-colonial state (Stockhammer 2012). Hybridization itself, as a concept and an idea, is thus born out of terminological and conceptual hybridizations, and undergoes transformation and reuses that strongly depend on disciplinary cross-breedings. Metaphorical uses of the concept, expectably, are not constrained by the specific limitations of the biological process and can attain a certain generality. Hybridization in knowledge has been defined as the “admixture of information drawn from diverse sources (...) to make something new” (Winterbottom 2016). Since antiquity, conceptual admixtures accompanied the passage from one cultural phase to another, e.g. with Hellenistic appropriation and elaboration, or from one culture to another, e.g. in the Latinisation of Greek philosophical and scientific doctrines. The Early Modern saw a phase of constant hybridization (see e.g. Burke 2016) in the disciplines of thought: both of ideas and concepts, that are the primary object of this call, and of objects (e.g. Gaida 2016) and practices, in which we are also interested, as far as they, on the one hand, embed and reflect, on the other hand produce new ideas and concepts. In modern times, these processes are undoubtedly still ongoing and likely are entailed in uncounted conceptual and disciplinary innovations. Conceptual hybridization, therefore, can be described as a transformative process in which certain existing concepts and ideas undergo a commixture, or are intermixed into other existing conceptual formations, so that existing notions are reshaped and gradually renewed, or an unexpected novelty is produced in the domain of documentable historical dynamics of ideas and concepts. Such processes — to which bakhtinian-like ‘unconscious’, ‘intentional’, and ‘polyphonic’ components might be ascribed — would find a test of their relevance in their being recognized and met with appreciation or ostracization, or having been considered contentious in relation to historically perceived alterities between ideas and doctrines. The hybridization of concepts and ideas is undoubtedly a multi-faceted phenomenon. This Call for Papers intends to highlight and elucidate these facets and processes, from the simultaneous point of view of the history of ideas and of the intersection of disciplines that characterize the Journal of Interdisciplinary History of Ideas. Contributions may focus on very specific or on wider-ranging historical cases, but general and methodological contributions might be also considered. Deadlines The special issue of the Journal of Interdisciplinary History of Ideas on Facets of Hybridization in the History of Ideas is planned for mid-2022. Articles, along with a 300-words abstract and keywords, must be submitted before March 15, 2022. A first scrutiny by the guest editor and the editorial staff will be followed by a double-blind peer review process for the selected papers. Submission Submitted articles may be written in English or French (in the latter case, English- language title, abstract and keywords shall be provided before publication), and can be either uploaded to the journal website through the standard procedures, or sent to the following email address: [email protected] Submissions must contain original and unpublished work. Contributions are expected to adopt a genuinely interdisciplinary perspective in the history of ideas. The text can be provided in .odt, .doc, .docx, or .pdf format, and must not include authors’ names and affiliations (pay attention to metadata and properties), nor self- references that reveal the author’s identity. Authors are welcome to discuss their prospective contributions with the journal editors and the guest editor of the issue before submission. For further information, please contact the staff of the Journal: [email protected] Journal website: http://jihi.eu __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: https://interphil.polylog.org InterPhil List Archive: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ __________________________________________________
